I like some Irish punk bands; a lot of them are catchy, have good music and mix the influence well. That said, I always feel a little left out for NOT being Irish and it kind of keeps me from getting into bands like this. Not really relatable?

My problem with a lot of bands like this are their overbearing desire to flaunt their apparent nationality. Is it really the only interesting thing you can think to write of? Sure, some of it is really good (I really like me some Real McKenzies for example) but it's a small scope for musical inspiration and a bit repetitive.

hahaha for their grandparents or great grandparents depending on their age etc. it probably was. I know in Toronto in there were signs as late as the early 1900's that said "No Blacks, No jews, No Micks" or "No Catholics" etc.

I'm part Irish, and even I feel left out of this shit. I always got annoyed by St. Patrick's Day, straight up Irish can be overtly obnoxious about their 2% Irish heritage. I mean my mom's side has a damn castle in Ireland, and I'm just like "meh, Irish people."

I can understand, since a lot of the themes are "arggg we're Irish, drink up, England out of Ireland" type shit, but, do you feel the same way about Stiff Little Fingers? Or the Clash? Both of them sang about some very specific political topics that we as Americans of our age really can't identify with, but, are still good songs. I'm assuming (maybe wrongly so) that you're not of Jamaican or Caribbean ancestry, but there's probably some ska or reggae you like. None of us grew up in a shanty town, I'm assuming. Same goes with Gogol Bordello or even WIFS; both of those bands are heavily rooted in Russian and eastern European heritage, but they're good bands who put on good shows. There's lots of bands I like, personally, whom I don't agree with politically (too right wing, some too left wing), but still enjoy. Good music is good music.

So one of the last Warped tours i was at (04 or 05), i picked up one of those free samplers for this band, it had "Good Morning Da" and "No Loot" i was blown away by those two tracks, but when picked up the album, the rest was pretty meh.